In Focus

More than four million Nordic citizens are members of gyms like Sats Elixia. As a result, the demand for skilled instructors is considerable. We joined one student of theology, one accountant and one brand expert in their spinning, yoga and shape classes.

Competency is a moving target, since the knowledge needed to manage a job always changes. In the fitness and exercise industry this is doubly true. Not only does one trend replace another. Competency also often means knowing the right movements and how to make people move.

Viking Line is facing a real challenge. The largest age group onboard their Baltic Sea passenger ferries is 50 to 59 year olds. When they retire, a big chunk of competence disappears. The company has decided to treat this as a challenge and not a problem.

Finnish restaurateurs are worried about the lack of Finnish-speaking waiters. As a result, more and more restaurants now seek English-speaking staff. Meanwhile, trade unions sound a warning that many young people are leaving the trade because of low pay and a lack of workplace training opportunities.

A changing labour market always needs new competency. Employees and employers must stay up to date. Workplaces from fitness centres to fisheries need to secure the knowledge which new developments demand, whether it is digitalisation or yoga. All the Nordic countries are looking at how to organise their adult and continuing education. In good Nordic tradition, employers, employees and authorities work together to find the best solutions. We check the state of affairs across the Nordics.

The refugee crisis has led to more activity and cooperation between the Nordic countries in order to find the best ways of including refugees into the labour market. But inclusion is also about being open to everyone who for different reasons struggle to get a foothold in working life. Work done by Danish municipalities shows success can be achieved when the integration measures feel meaningful to all involved.

The Nordic countries are leading the way when it comes to the inclusion of refugees, says the OECD’s Thomas Liebig. He holds up the unique structural introduction programmes as one example. The problem is that not many find work after finishing the programme. Norway’s Minister of Labour Anniken Hauglie wants to improve the way the measure is targeted in order to get refugees into the labour market.

Polish labour immigrants travelled to Norway rather than to Sweden or Denmark, which were closer, when Poland joined the EU in 2004. Most did not intend to stay, but after some years their families joined them in Norway. Because of short work contracts, the immigrants are in a kind of limbo. They have a job, but little prospect of promotion.

What do refugees cost? It is a concern for both proponents and opponents of welcoming refugees to a country. Yet research shows the challenge is more social than economic, where the major risk of alienation lies in the gap between those who have a job and those who do not.

A new study compares employment of previous inmates in four Nordic countries up until five years after their release. The aim has been to see whether former inmates in certain countries are more successful in finding work, and whether this is a result of the work of the correctional services or labour market measures.

Why should it take seven years for immigrants to get nothing more than low-paid work, when there are expensive labour market measures in place? When can they get a well-paid job in the private sector after just one year!

Uber and Airbnb have taken most of the limelight, but new platform companies are being developed all the time. Finn.no, Cool Company and Ework Group are three examples of Nordic companies using digital platforms to link customers with various types of services.

He has a vision for Nordic cooperation between the social partners in order to make labour market agreements part of the digital platforms which organise and allocate work. “We want to create a distinctly Nordic variation of the platform economy and make it easier for employers to be good employers,” says Fredrik Söderqvist from the Unionen trade union.

How large is the sharing economy in the Nordic region really? And how should it be defined? One thing about the sharing economy most agree on is that it can be defined in different ways depending on whether you belive working conditions, flexibility. or technology is the most important thing.

The sharing economy is thriving in Iceland. It has not had major consequences for the country’s labour market, and the development has happened on its own terms – driven by tourism. Icelanders share their houses and cars with tourists. Iceland’s tax authorities are now going to work together with Airbnb.

The social partners in the Nordic region have to adapt the Nordic labour market model to fit the sharing economy, driverless forklifts and other new labour market trends. If they don’t, others will, a Danish expert warns. The Danish government and the social partners have approached the task by establishing a new body: “The Disruption Council”.

The Danish government has become so worried about the deterioration of the quality of working environments that it is now making changes to working environment measures. Trade unions are calling for a stop to cuts to the Working Environment Authority.

The Icelandic dream turned into a nightmare, says a Polish woman. Eastern European bus drivers work for 500 euro a month. Hotels suspected of employing asylum seekers. People trafficking suspected as two people worked around the clock in a basement. These are headlines from Iceland.